What a way to let people know what is deep down my heart! I will share my views on Chinese metaphysics with my audience without reservation. Please treat this blog as a public park where friends can exchange ideas.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

What we face and our reaction

No matter whether it is life reading or divination, what is revealed is the 10% - things that are going to happen to you. The outcome depends on the other 90% - how you react to the things happening to you.

If we know the 10% that is beyond our control, we can plan the best reaction to get the most favourable outcome. This is the value of life reading and divination.

If you are the coach of a football team, divination about the game will give you the analysis of what your team is facing. Whether your team will win depends on how your team reacts. If you are just an onlooker, since you do not know how the team reacts, your divination will not tell you the outcome. If Qi Men Dun Jia is used, then it also reveals whether the coach is doing the right thing as well. However, QMDJ is not really divination treated as communication between the diviner and Heaven. It is the analysis of the multi-dimensional field of qi. It may cover much more than 10% as the probable reaction is also revealed in the study.

I think that piece is overly simplistic. The wife or the daughter in that story could also apply his 90-10 idea and shrug their shoulders if the husband expresses his unhappiness about the coffee on his shirt.

I am not a fan of that kind of "keeping it in" ideas. Expressing the irritation is far better for health in the long run, and it is more honest.The husband has cursed some, the daughter has cried some, the wife has argued a bit, ... so all have cleaned their system of some negative energy..What's not to like about that?

***

In divination we are not always in the situation where we have influence over 90% what will happen. It completely depends on the question.I remember some years ago you shared a divination about the price of gold (and it worked out well). But we cannot argue that the outcome in price of gold was 90% dependent on our "reaction" to the reading. The market is far too big for our little action to have had much or any effect on it.

It is the same when we do divination about the weather, or about sickness, etcetera... It is not always in our hands to change even 1% of the outcome.

How much is "in our hands" (so to speak) can vary enormously, it can range between 0% and 100%

Although mathematics is what I study, I never like the idea of using percentages. The 90-10 to me is just a comparison showing how we react has a much larger influence on the outcome and consequence than what we encounter.

To every action, there is a reaction. The chain reaction induces the final outcome. Yet this "final" outcome is not really final. At any point in the chain, a slight change will result in very different outcomes.

That is the whole idea.

Letting out one's emotion is a good way for self-healing. However, we also have to consider how we affect others in letting our emotions out. A second thought is needed.

Divination shows us a picture. If this picture indicates that an enormous force is coming that no human effort can overcome, it points us to the path to go to pick up the windfall profits initiated by this force. Divination does not tell us how to change a picture. It tells us how to benefit from it.

> Divination does not tell us how to change a picture. It tells us how to benefit from it.

Dear Joseph,

Using the classic I Ching text divination, plenty of line texts give us advice how the picture and the outcome can be changed for the better.Sometimes it is too late already, and problems cannot be avoided anymore, then the line texts tells so.

So I think it's the opposite of what you say here. The focus is not on how to benefit, but on what is the proper action in a given situation. Then whatever benefit comes is only the by-product of the proper action.But there are cases when it is too late to take action and alter the course of things.

I don't know why I see so much attempts to limit the scope of divination.Things like "divination should only be used for.., but not for..".

Divination can be used in a thousand and one ways, it is very flexible.

Even the ancients took it quite playfully when we look at old anecdotes. They divined about trivial things like which horse will go to the water first, or about a girl that will fall on her buttocks ...

So I can only wonder when and why has divination become such a serious matter that it needs to be limited to such and such..

"So I think it's the opposite of what you say here. The focus is not on how to benefit, but on what is the proper action in a given situation."

What the divination tells us is the picture. The "proper action" is the reaction to happenings. The word "proper" already implies "expected benefit".

Without the divination, the reaction may be "improper action" from which we cannot get any benefit. This is the purpose of divination.

The divination about which horse goes into the water first is an example of abuse of divination and that is why it is meant to be inaccurate. The two diviners could not refuse to divine as it was an order by the Emperor. They chose to give two answers so that either one would be correct.

The picture of a young girl falling from the tree hurting her buttocks tells something people would like to avoid. Proper action can be taken to benefit from seeing the picture in advance. Since the divination also tells that the injury was not serious, the diviner did not do anything to try to avoid this. Should the picture show something more serious then seeing the picture in advance can be beneficial.

Of course divination can be done for fun. The amusement is the benefit. The interpretation can also be abused to insult a person. I have seen this being done by unethical diviners.

I would also like to add that there is not always a direct "benefit" , almost equally common is "proper action" leading to avoiding some harm or loss (which can of course also be seen as a kind of benefit).For example if my car is on a direct collision course with some heavy obstacle, then "proper action" will consist of turning the wheel left or right. In doing so there is no "benefit", but I can avoid being in a damaging accident.The result of divination is often of that nature.

***

Benefit can come in many other forms.In divination about trivial or leisure matters, the benefit can simply be "learning" or "understanding". Or benefit can be "peace of mind" (because the reading shows there is nothing to worry).

There is a very close relationship between the "intention" of the diviner and the "benefit" he may get from it.

In the example you gave about the football coach. He may use the picture of his divination to alter the tactics of his team, and benefit from a better result.The supporter on the sidelines can also use divination. He also gets a picture about the match, but he is not in a position to alter anything. So what is his benefit?Well, he may enjoy more insight in the strategy of the game, or e.g. the picture may show that his team will play very bad in first half, then come back in the second half of the match.Knowing that, he stays in the stadium while many of his friends already go home disappointed when their team is trailing 0-3 after 50 minutes.

There are so many different situations and possible intentions of doing divination (and hence also many different possible "benefits"), that we cannot really limit or define the scope of it.